Originating from the ecumenical aspirations of a group whose religious affiliations covered a wide spectrum, the Eclectic was founded in 1805, but, following the departure of the Anglican contingent during its first year, it came to represent purely nonconformist interests. The Eclectic achieved a reputation for its scholarship and wide-ranging coverage of contemporary issues, particularly the movement for religious and political freedom. Its support for the campaign begun by Edward Miall for the disestablishment of the Church of England led to the departure in 1844 of Robert Vaughan, to found the British Quarterly Review. Other contributors included the philosopher James Mill, Samuel Carter Hall. (See also Altholz, Religious Press in Britain, Hayden, Romantic Reviewers.)
Although this periodical did not review Modern Painters I, their review of Modern Painters III (1856) in the Eclectic Review, June 1856 defended Ruskin from critical attack by the establishment quarterlies, the Quarterly Review and the Edinburgh Review, earlier in the year. Other sympathetic periodicals which took Ruskin's part in response to this attack included the British Quarterly Review, April 1856, the Westminster Review, April 1856, the American Putnam's Monthly Magazine, May 1856, Fraser's Magazine, June 1856, the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, June 1856, and the National Review, July 1856. Many of these periodicals represented the interests of religious dissent.